Meanwhile, Ryan's former running mate, Mitt Romney, worked rapidly behind the scenes to begin assembling the pieces for a third White House bid that had once seemed implausible.

Taken in tandem, Ryan and Romney's moves have reshaped dramatically the early contours of the race for financial support among wide swaths of the Republican establishment, which had only recently been seen as likely to rally en masse around the prospective candidacy of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

"After giving it a lot of thought, I've decided not to run for president,” Ryan said in a statement to RealClearPolitics. “Our work at the House Ways and Means Committee over the next few years will be crucial to moving America forward, and my job

Another slug that things Americans are by the majority stupid. America is only 47% stupid.

With the trouble Ryan is now running into with the NaziNational Socia... err Tea Party types, it's no wonder he's ducking out.

Although, how do you duck out when you never ducked in??? I don't see his filings anywhere...well maybe nail filings...

Outside the Beltway, the right is livid with new Speaker Paul Ryan’s trillion-dollar spending deal with Democrats.

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter says Ryan, just seven weeks on the job, is ripe for a primary challenge. “Paul Ryan Betrays America,” blared a headline on the conservative site Breibart.com. And Twitter is littered with references to the Wisconsin Republican’s new “Muslim beard.”

Ryan is refusing to let the attacks go unanswered and is using his megaphone as the nation’s top elected Republican to try to drown out the chorus of conservative critics.

After Congress passed the nearly $2 trillion government funding and tax-cuts package last week, Ryan touted conservative victories in a roundtable with Capitol Hill reporters, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, and again during a trio of interviews with friendly conservative talk radio hosts Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt and his old political m...

I was wondering what was taking the morans so long. Usually they hate everybody right out of the box.

PS...further in the article is tells how Ryan has been called the M-word

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In a consequential shift to how House Speaker Paul Ryan hoped to proceed with House business, Republican leadership announced Wednesday it will limit the consideration of amendments, which Democrats had been using to inflict political chaos.

While the move to a so-called "structured rule" reeks of insidery wonky parliamentary maneuvering, it is a significant departure from how Ryan had promised to run the House. It is also implicitly a concession that Democratic efforts to make life miserable for House Republicans by introducing politically awkward amendments had been effective. The most prominent of those amendments -- one that preserved protections for LGBT Americans -- derailed a major energy appropriations bill last month.

With the change, members will not be able to freely introduce amendments without going through the House Rules Committee, a move that could limit the amendments considered on legislation. Any amendments will be approved through the House Rules committee prior to a vote hitting the floor, an attempt to stop controversial amendments from sinking the must-pass spending bills.

Any member can still submit amendments, but the Rules Committee will have the final say.

The shift signifies Ryan's reckoning with reality. When he took the Speaker's gavel, the former Budget Committee chairman pledged he was committed to opening up the legislative process even when that meant forcing members to take tough votes. But free-wheeling and politically charged amendments have made it a tough promise for Ryan to keep. A source in a Republican conference meeting told TPM that it became clear "Democrats will continue to offer contentious amendments, but then not support bills on final passage."

Top House Republicans are moving to quiet dissent over Speaker's Paul Ryan's rocky relationship with Donald Trump as some on the far right of the GOP conference are threatening to stir up trouble in leadership elections next month.

Regardless of what happens on Election Day, Ryan is in a difficult situation given the deep divisions in the Republican Party. He has become a target of Trump's grassroots supporters, and there is some concern among members that if Trump loses outside groups could try to put pressure on GOP offices to dump Ryan as speaker, especially if they don't like the outcome of the year-end spending bill Congress will take up.

And if, as most members told CNN, there is a smaller Republican majority -- potentially 230 seats or less compared to the 247 they have now, the speaker's room to maneuver will shrink with fewer moderates in his party, boosting the clout of his biggest critics: members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

* * *

Multiple House Republicans say if someone wants to challenge the speaker they are entitled to make their case, and they should use the use the current system to appeal to colleagues as to why they would be a better candidate. But some are frustrated that those who aren't happy with Ryan won't actually run but instead could derail him by casting protest votes in January that would deny him the 218 votes he needs to be sworn in again as speaker on the House floor.

* * *

So far no House GOP member is floating their name as an alternate candidate, and multiple House Republicans tell CNN there aren't any moves behind the scenes to mount a challenge to Ryan. But that could change after the election results are in, and House GOP members are bracing for double-digit losses.

* * *

But one man is putting his hat into the ring: Paul Nehlen, a Wisconsin businessman who lost resoundingly to Ryan in their August primary fight.

Nehlen told CNN Tuesday he plans to run against Ryan for speaker given that the Constitution allows people who are not elected representatives to serve as House speaker. (Non-members like Colin Powell have often received protest votes during speakership elections.)

Chatter is growing louder on Capitol Hill that Paul Ryan’s days as Speaker are numbered.

Four House Republicans, including a senior lawmaker close to leadership, told The Hill they expect Ryan to step down after Tuesday’s elections, arguing that he faces a daunting path to the 218 votes he needs to win a full two-year term leading the House GOP.

* * *

“Speculation is growing that Paul will not return,” said one senior GOP lawmaker close to leadership.

The lawmaker noted that if the GOP majority shrinks, Ryan could lose next year's floor vote to remain Speaker with a relatively small number of GOP defections.

“Why would he put himself in a situation where as few as 10 dissident members or one ill-timed quote from Trump could put his future in jeopardy?"
The outcome of the presidential race is a major factor for Ryan.

If Trump loses narrowly to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, he and his die-hard loyalists will almost certainly try to pin some of the blame on Ryan.

They had a very hard time finding someone who would take the job last time. The GOP members had to beg Ryan to take the job and he gave them conditions before he would accept. Ryan does not look like a happy man. He knows Trump is going to cost him big time no matter the result of the election. His owner reason for keeping the post is that he will still have 'the power of the purse' and he gets to pull the strings on it.

June bug wrote:Ryan turned out to be worse than Boehner and, IMHO, any likely replacement is going to be much worse than Ryan. Expect nothing but impeachment to get done for the next two years in the House.

The related speculation is that Pelosi may pull a Willie Brown and offer the Democrats' support to a sane, moderate Republican.

June bug wrote:Ryan turned out to be worse than Boehner and, IMHO, any likely replacement is going to be much worse than Ryan. Expect nothing but impeachment to get done for the next two years in the House.

Impeachment cost the House a lot of seats last time around. I don't think* leadership is stupid enough to do it again. It would cost them the House.
____________________________________________________________________________
*Of course, predictions of just how stupid Republicans are have often been wrong in the recent past. Viz: Donald John Trump (fka Drumpf).

I am ashamed to say I had to look it up on Wikipedia, but it seems that Speaker of the House is elected like the Pope, there has to be an absolute majority and if there isn't they keep voting over and over again. If the Republicans lose some seats but are still in the majority, and they can't agree ahead of time to only nominate one Republican to go against Pelosi, it could be quite a spectacle of them voting over and over again.

"I asked Osama bin Laden and he very strongly said that he had nothing to do with crashing airplanes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. I don't see any reason it would be Al-Qaeda."

Dan1100 wrote:I am ashamed to say I had to look it up on Wikipedia, but it seems that Speaker of the House is elected like the Pope, there has to be an absolute majority and if there isn't they keep voting over and over again. If the Republicans lose some seats but are still in the majority, and they can't agree ahead of time to only nominate one Republican to go against Pelosi, it could be quite a spectacle of them voting over and over again.

Shades of the start of the present session: If Ryan is the leading Republican candidate, and a Yoho is a reasonable second, Pelosi will direct just enough Democrats to vote for Ryan.

June bug wrote:Ryan turned out to be worse than Boehner and, IMHO, any likely replacement is going to be much worse than Ryan. Expect nothing but impeachment to get done for the next two years in the House.

Impeachment cost the House a lot of seats last time around. I don't think* leadership is stupid enough to do it again. It would cost them the House.
____________________________________________________________________________
*Of course, predictions of just how stupid Republicans are have often been wrong in the recent past. Viz: Donald John Trump (fka Drumpf).

Mike McCauley and Jason Chaffets are already promising impeachment hearings and McCauley as further talking up conviction and removal. I don't think we really have any idea of just how stupid Republicans are prepared to be.

Dan1100 wrote:I am ashamed to say I had to look it up on Wikipedia, but it seems that Speaker of the House is elected like the Pope, there has to be an absolute majority and if there isn't they keep voting over and over again. If the Republicans lose some seats but are still in the majority, and they can't agree ahead of time to only nominate one Republican to go against Pelosi, it could be quite a spectacle of them voting over and over again.

Shades of the start of the present session: If Ryan is the leading Republican candidate, and a Yoho is a reasonable second, Pelosi will direct just enough Democrats to vote for Ryan.

There are a lot of stupid Republicans in Congress, but Yoyo and Gomer are two of the worst in my opinion. Neither competent or trustworthy enough to be dogwalkers. This is all assuming that Orley and Ryan's GOP contender don't split the votes enough in his state that a Dem gets elected, can only hope.

The fact that you sincerely and wholeheartedly believe that the “Law of Gravity” is unconstitutional and a violation of your sovereign rights, does not absolve you of adherence to it.

Dan1100 wrote:I am ashamed to say I had to look it up on Wikipedia, but it seems that Speaker of the House is elected like the Pope, there has to be an absolute majority and if there isn't they keep voting over and over again. If the Republicans lose some seats but are still in the majority, and they can't agree ahead of time to only nominate one Republican to go against Pelosi, it could be quite a spectacle of them voting over and over again.

Shades of the start of the present session: If Ryan is the leading Republican candidate, and a Yoho is a reasonable second, Pelosi will direct just enough Democrats to vote for Ryan.

If that's the way it goes down, hopefully the Democrats don't just give Ryan their votes. Hopefully he has to promise to get rid of the Hastert Rule and let the House vote on important bills whether there is a majority of Republicans for them or not.

"I asked Osama bin Laden and he very strongly said that he had nothing to do with crashing airplanes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. I don't see any reason it would be Al-Qaeda."

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Tuesday won reelection as Speaker of the House in a near-unanimous GOP vote that reflected a unified Republican party dead set on dismantling the past eight years of the Obama administration.

Conservative Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a frequent thorn in leadership's side, was the sole Republican to defect from Ryan. Massie cast his vote for Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), who challenged Ryan for the Speaker's gavel in 2015 but not this year.

The final vote totals were 239 votes for Paul Ryan, 189 votes for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), two votes for Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and one vote each for Reps. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Daniel Webster (R-Fla.).

Paul Ryan wins re-election with votes from all but one Republican
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) won re-election Tuesday with 239 votes, securing his spot as leader of the 115th Congress. In a formal vote on Congress' opening day, Ryan earned the support of every Republican except Rep. Tom Massie (R-Ky.), who voted for Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.). The nearly unanimous vote marks a striking move towards party unity, as several Republicans defected when Ryan was first elected speaker in 2015.